ExtremeCloud IQ vs WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi comparison

The compared Extreme Networks and WatchGuard solutions aren't in the same category. Extreme Networks is ranked #12 in NMA , with an average rating of 9.0, and holds a 2.7% mindshare in the category. WatchGuard is ranked #25 in Wireless LAN , with an average rating of 7.0, and holds a 0.6% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Extreme Networks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 83% of WatchGuard users who would recommend it.

ExtremeCloud IQ

Read 77 ExtremeCloud IQ reviews

2,576 Views
464 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi

Read 7 WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi reviews

494 Views
484 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

ExtremeCloud IQ

WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between ExtremeCloud IQ and WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Fortinet and others in Network Management Applications.

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Network Management Applications

October 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

ExtremeCloud IQ

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Management Applications (12th), Network Access Control (NAC) (10th), Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (21st)

WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Wireless LAN (25th)

Mindshare comparison

ExtremeCloud IQ and WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. ExtremeCloud IQ is designed for Network Management Applications and holds a mindshare of 2.7%, down 2.8% compared to last year.
WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi, on the other hand, focuses on Wireless LAN, holds 0.6% mindshare, up 0.5% since last year.

Network Management Applications Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
ExtremeCloud IQ	2.7%
Cisco DNA Center	19.5%
Cisco Catalyst Center	9.8%
Other	68.0%

Network Management Applications

Wireless LAN Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi	0.6%
Aruba Wireless	15.0%
Ruckus Wireless	13.5%
Other	70.9%

Wireless LAN

Featured Reviews

José Roldan

Ingeniero De Preventa at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Has improved network monitoring with AI-driven insights and centralized device management

The best features of ExtremeCloud IQ include the integration of different vendors in one dashboard, the evolution of the manager, and any devices in networking. The impact of ExtremeCloud IQ on my organization is positive as the deployment is for a hybrid solution, using third-party vendors and cloud solutions for Extreme devices, switches, IP, and access points or SD-WAN solution devices. My IT team is occupied with other jobs, and ExtremeCloud IQ helps with monitoring networking at low costs. For networking and access points, it acts as a controller in a cloud environment, eliminating the need for an appliance controller or wireless LAN controller, thus saving on investment and reducing TCO costs.

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WarrenWilliams

Senior Account Manager at Bralin Technology Solutions

A solution that offers excellent support and makes it easy to manage networks

To utilize the solution properly, you need some training and guidance on that. Getting it working is easy, but if you're going to use it with feature sets that make WatchGuard worthwhile to use, it's probably not the easiest to set up. I'd rate the initial setup a seven out of ten. The time taken to deploy the solution depends on the project scope you're doing. Do you need ten WiFi access points or one? You could deploy the solution in an hour. We need one person to deploy the solution. But the number of people required for deployment depends on where the access points are deployed. Like, if it's the ceiling or whatever. The way we do it, we usually have an on-site technician who sets up the backend. We usually have two people when deploying the solution, but you can do it with one person. We have a team that manages the solution. But if you have ten people on a site to manage the solution, 15 minutes daily is enough.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"I like ExtremeCloud IQ's unified single-pane-of-glass dashboard. It offers a lot of visibility of performance, and it's great for troubleshooting. You don't have to go to 55 different places. You can get the information you need with just a few clicks."

"What's most valuable for me in ExtremeCloud IQ is easy management. It also has centralized administration, so you don't have to go to the customer site to program it. It can be programmed remotely."

"It is more cost effective and gives more flexibility."

"ExtremeCloud IQ is a complete package with the pilot and the co-pilot feature that gives me full visibility of the network."

"The cloud-based management interface allows us to fully manage all our wireless radios, ensuring consistency and ease of access."

"It excels in Wi-Fi and switch management, as well as other internal management aspects, offering speed and efficiency that surpass what other competitors provide."

"When we deployed the new IP that is managed wirelessly in the cloud, it fixed the problems. Now, we don't have any more reports, and everything works fine."

"It's extremely easy to deploy. Even our access points are behind the net, not using real, public IP. We can easily add to the cloud. For deployment, we just need to let the access point take the DSCP from IP and then, even if it's not a requirement, we can see the serial number from the access points and add the serial number to the cloud directly."

More ExtremeCloud IQ pros

"The configuration part of WatchGuard is very flexible."

"Cloud analytics that provide all its attributes."

"It makes it easy to obtain all information about the client experience."

"They're very easy to set up and get running."

"We like that WatchGuard works and integrates directly with the firewalls we use."

"The solution has been stable."

"The Wi-Fi security features of this solution have been great for our customers who need to strictly control access to their network."

Cons

"A room for improvement in ExtremeCloud IQ is roaming. My team is facing roaming issues with the solution, particularly when using VoIP over WiFi. For example, VoIP sometimes breaks when you walk around the customer site. In terms of what I'd like to see in the next release of the solution, right now, the inventory for ExtremeCloud IQ is awful. There's no stock, and you must wait a year and a half for new stocks. It's awful."

"Having a wizard for customers who are just starting might be helpful."

"I struggled with the documentation."

"There can be an improvement by incorporating two-factor authentication or multi-factor authentication for security. Advanced network access control features and application control features should be added to manage applications. Many customers are interested in managing data, such as setting data quotas for individual users."

"We have had some mediocre to poor experiences with tech support: Conflicting information, condescending attitudes, and reluctance to work to resolve an issue."

"ExtremeCloud IQ’s user interface needs to be improved, and its current bugs need to be fixed."

"Its price could be lower. It is a simplified solution, but it has price challenges. It is costly as compared to other solutions. It has almost everything. The only thing is that MAC is not possible on the cloud, and it has to be on-premises."

"I know a school district, a big school district of mine, ripped out Extreme due to inefficiencies. It was the guest network that can be a struggle. They tried to differentiate between their primary network, and then offer a secondary."

More ExtremeCloud IQ cons

"If a client device had issues with authentication due to out of date browser or similar difficulties, it would be nice to have the ability to migrate the client onto the portal via one click."

"The support response can be time-consuming because sometimes issues are very sensitive and require instant attention."

"Inability to import a user with one click."

"I don't think they're available at the best price."

"One of the things is if you buy it with a certain subscription, you can't easily change the subscription level."

"The solution can be scaled but it has limitations from my experience."

"The price of this solution needs to reviewed, as it is currently high enough to deter customers from trying it."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Price-wise, it is a reasonable tool."

"It is easy for customers to use this product because they are able to interchange the license depending on their usage rather than having to buy individual licenses for each asset."

"Although the pricing is a bit high, I consider Aerohive to be well worth the money."

"There are probably cheaper solutions but we invest for stability and performance for the longer haul."

"For example, if you compare Aruba vs Aerohive, you need to check which licences from Aruba you need to match the functionality of Aerohive (usually you need at least three types of licences and a controller with redundancy). The same goes with Cisco, where you need buy additional licences for central management, firewall, spectral analysis, WIPS, PPSK, etc. Aerohive has a very simple model - one licence for all the functionalities - and you can believe that there are many. One licence makes it easy to maintain, scale, renew and you can plan your costs 10 years in advance."

"Customers need to pay a yearly licensing fee for ExtremeCloud IQ, which is a little bit expensive."

"Buy near the end of Q4 in order to get a deal."

"It is costly as compared to Meraki, Aruba, Juniper, and Cisco. Cloud IQ is an enterprise solution, whereas Meraki is specifically a single solution."

More ExtremeCloud IQ pricing and cost advice

"The solution is priced high compared to competitors. However, for the features that are included in the solution, the price becomes more reasonable."

"WatchGuard is on the upper scale for pricing."

"Your licensing and cost, as would be required for many other solutions, being considered for eighty to two hundred and eighty different physical locations, is just about the same amount per access point."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

13%

Comms Service Provider

11%

Retailer

Non Profit

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	46
Midsize Enterprise	13
Large Enterprise	24

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	2

Questions from the Community

What are pros and cons of Aruba 515 Series AP vs. Cisco Meraki or Extreme Networks?

Depends. I have personally used both Cisco and Aruba so I am familiar with them. Extreme I am not, so unless they have some feature that I need or want, I wouldn't consider them. Do you have expe...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ExtremeCloud IQ?

The licensing was a challenge due to budget constraints, and I used ExtremeCloud IQ without a license for a period. The documentation and training courses were also costly, impacting how easily I c...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering ExtremeCloud IQ?

I use ExtremeCloud IQ's real-time analytics. In the cloud solution, I get reports, and it works together with machine learning and artificial intelligence for those reports. This tool permits the c...

See all answers

What needs improvement with WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi?

The support response can be time-consuming because sometimes issues are very sensitive and require instant attention. Also, when an incident occurs, the impact can be significantly huge. A recent p...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi?

We use WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi because we have used different tools as well, like Ubiquiti. The complexity of Ubiquiti is much more compared to WatchGuard, which provides more flexibility and is ea...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi?

We recommend using WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi, but when incidents occur, it can be very difficult to identify why they happen. Normally, the issues are simple to fix, but we recently faced a major inc...

See all answers

Comparisons

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN vs ExtremeCloud IQ

Compared 12% of the time

Ruckus Wireless vs ExtremeCloud IQ

Compared 10% of the time

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) vs ExtremeCloud IQ

Compared 10% of the time

Ubiquiti Wireless vs ExtremeCloud IQ

Compared 8% of the time

Aruba Wireless vs ExtremeCloud IQ

Compared 8% of the time

More ExtremeCloud IQ Competitors

Ubiquiti WLAN vs WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi

Compared 37% of the time

Aruba Wireless vs WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi

Compared 23% of the time

Fortinet FortiWLM vs WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi

Compared 21% of the time

Ruckus Wireless vs WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi

Compared 19% of the time

More WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

ExtremeCloud IQ

November 2025

Download ExtremeCloud IQ product report

Buyer's Guide

WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi

October 2025

Download WatchGuard Secure Wi‑Fi product report

Also Known As

Aerohive Networks, Aerohive HiveManager, HiveManager, ExtremeCloud , ExtremeSecurity

No data available

Overview

ExtremeCloud is a resilient and scalable cloud-based network management solution offered by Extreme Networks as a subscription service.

The network is your platform of engagement for clients and staff. We have designed ExtremeCloud to provide superior user experience by empowering you and the applications that drive your business. The combination of Extreme Networks’ smart wired and wireless edges and the elasticity, resilience and scalability provided via state-of-the-art datacenters distributed strategically for worldwide availability allows you to respond to the changing needs of your business, at the speed of cloud, through a simple, multi-site aware user interface.

Extreme Networks

WatchGuard is a global leader in network security, secure Wi-Fi, and network intelligence products and services for SMBs and Distributed Enterprises worldwide. Our mission is to make enterprise-grade security accessible to companies of all types and sizes through simplicity, making WatchGuard an ideal solution for distributed enterprises and SMBs. WatchGuard is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, with offices throughout North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America.

WatchGuard

Sample Customers

Henry Ford Health System, Baltimore Ravens, Brandili, Federal University of Alagoas, CEDAE, Caxias do Sul, UNISC Concurrency, CenturyLink Field, Louisiana College, Cricket Tasmania Stadium, Moscow Internet Exchange

Portsmouth Grammar School, HILOTEC

Buyer's Guide

Network Management Applications

October 2025

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